Plus, BP spill says taking this stuff out of the ground, meh, not as safe as it could be.

Plus, gobs of torque from 0 rpm is nothing to sneeze at.

Lala: “The government uses subsidy, fuel taxes, and CAFE standards to require these hyper-complicated green vehicles.”
Brammofan: Hyper-complicated – The Brammo Enertia has 1/10 the moving parts of a Ninja.

Lala: “We pay exorbitant prices, rather than saving money and being debt-free, to prop up the manufacturing industries who are full of 50-70 year old executives who pee their pants through their enlarged prostates b/c they have no idea how they can sell over-priced green vehicles to meet unrealistic earnings estimates that are more inline with the SUV boom than the modern age of fuel-efficiency and downsizing.”
Brammofan: I agree with you – we all should be debt-free. My only beef with you on this statement is that the CEO of Brammo is only 49. Not sure about his prostate, but I’ll ask him next weekend. If I don’t, Jensen will.

But hell yes on that D.A.R.E. class for adults. The credit industry is a bunch a vampires.

The most efficient vehicles on earth are cheap angular POS plastic cars with little engines that sip fuel and putt putt around town. They don’t have many electronic goodies b/c electronic goodies come from one of the least green industries on earth.

Unfortunately for G8 nations, anyone can build these cars including developing nations who have a distinct labor advantage over the US, Europe, and Japan. All we are doing is creating hyper-complicated vehicles that cannot be replicated in the developed world. The government uses subsidy, fuel taxes, and CAFE standards to require these hyper-complicated green vehicles. We pay exorbitant prices, rather than saving money and being debt-free, to prop up the manufacturing industries who are full of 50-70 year old executives who pee their pants through their enlarged prostates b/c they have no idea how they can sell over-priced green vehicles to meet unrealistic earnings estimates that are more inline with the SUV boom than the modern age of fuel-efficiency and downsizing.

Hmmm $6,000 for a Ninja 250 and Ohlins or $14,000 for a Brammo? I’m so torn. Pay an $8,000 premium to be part of the bright beautiful future or save money like hideous troll? What should I do? I just want to be beautiful.

Hmmm….$40,000 Chevy Volt that is sexy and can barely go 50 miles under real driving conditions or a used $10,000 Chevy Aveo LS commuting box? Save the earth and put one of my kids through college or save the earth like the celebrity I should be?

Somebody please help me. These green products have got me so conflicted.

No ill-will against Brammo. They are prospecting on the cutting-edge of a new technology. Good for them. But I will not listen to bright-eyed socialistic futurism from the sociopaths who pitch these products for cultural reasons. We’ve been burned enough times for 1 decade.

Connect the globe. Kill Saddam. Buy a McMansion. Bailout AIG. Socialize healthcare (further) . Go Electric!

This is a fucking nightmare! We need a D.A.R.E class for adults. Just say NO.

Jensen, were you educated in Russia or Norway? Where did you get the idea taxes are a requirement in the cost of a comodity? Prices are determined by supply & demand..the gov’t just muscles in for their piece. US drivers/riders pay $65B/yr. in gas taxes..what definition of low does that meet? Sure they are pissed away on subsidizing mass transit & bridges to nowhere, but they are huge. They also go a long way to paying for the (unnecessary) oil subsidies & the externalities. (factoid..recent autos emit 98% emissions than pre-1968 autos, what polution?).

E-bikes are NOT sportbikes. Your hero Czysz’s megabuck creation barely went 37 miles (it was slowing the last miles), so how is the Brammo going to go 100 miles in real sport riding conditions? Yeah, there are people who do ride 80-90mph average (heavens!).

Like all the other previous efforts that “changed everything”, this is a misrepresentated commuter bike disguised as a sportbike. Until GeddyT’s fantasy miracle batteries are introduced at an affordable price, these devices are just silly toys bought by people to establish their “green cred”.

Unsustainable energy course..yep, its been that way for 150 years.

Electrics are the new dot com boom. Everyone is trying to get ahead of the big bright beautiful future and governments everywhere want to create a new industry. There is no science behind it. This is a socio-cultural revolution engineered by business people and bureaucrats who have green ambitions (when I say green I mean green backs). Electrics only make sense if electricity rates stay constant during a spike in oil prices. Big electricity is about as bad as big oil so I’m not sure I’d take the risk. Just give me a 1L commuter box with decent aero and weak hybrid capability (turns off at red lights with a small recapture hybrid restart system). I’d probably cut my fuel bill in half and the car would be cheaper than what I drive now. That’s a real improvement. Good thing no one is pushing me in that direction. I might actually be happy.

As you point out, electrics aren’t even green until the entire grid goes to nuclear fusion. Once we get fusion we’ll probably go straight to hydrogen b/c we have an abundance of easily accessible hydrogen unlike alkali metals and other battery components. If batteries are as great as people say, we don’t need to force people to buy them.

Let these prospectors do their work in peace w/o the eco-religious pseudo-scientific diatribe. Everyone argues batteries for cultural reasons. It is the easiest way to tell that the entire movement is BS, just like how the dot com boom was going to connect us all so we wouldn’t have to live life with cultural blinders on. Yeah, great reason to bury my life savings in a fiber optic communications corridor in India.

We could double or triple fuel economy just by encouraging consumers to do all of their mundane driving in small displacement runabouts. Auto companies don’t want to sell these low-margin shit-boxes. Good thing we’ve got full electrics and government subsidies to save us from downgraded earnings forecasts.

Why do I get the feeling that all of these corporate watchdog types are doing anything but watching corporations? Maybe it’s b/c they don’t see that real green technology (simplified small displacement vehicles) will cut into profitability.

That’s quite an oversight. Wouldn’t you say?

I own a gas street bike and am down to a single gas dirt bike from three. And we’re a three four-wheeled-vehicle household (the wife and I have ~70 mile round trip commutes in opposite directions and have a cheap old truck for working around the property and hauling dirt bikes to the hills). So it’s not like I’m not just as fond of gas-powered vehicles as the next schmuck.

But there are certain annoyances to all of these vehicles. Summer has finally hit us in Washington and so I’ve started to ride my bike to work. It’s a commute some would be envious of, yet I still have to talk myself into it every day over just climbing into the car. I mean, it takes forever to warm up the Multistrada, and that’s time I could be in bed. And every other day I have to stop for gas! This is HUGELY annoying when it involves taking off gloves, fishing my wallet out of my jeans that are under my overpants, having to take the key out of the bike to open the stupid keyed gas cap (seriously, has anyone in the history of the world ever been so desperate for the meager amount of gas that a motorcycle holds that they’ve siphoned one dry?). Then splashing gas all over my tank and having to wipe it up. I have to fill up my car less than once a week, and the process is way less painful.

Then there’s the noise. I like meaty exhausts on my bike just like everyone else. My track bike had a pipe so loud that my wife knew it was me going by when she was all the way back at the van. But on the street? Be objective and realize that you’re just being a selfish douche. NOBODY but you likes your “sweet slip-on” out on the public roads. Not your neighbors in the morning, not pedestrians walking down the street, not the couple getting married as you ride by and rev your engine several times to get attention from the crowd (true story). Then there’s the clamp that’s being applied to motorcycling in general as a result of this negative image. Laws are getting stricter, dirt riding areas are closing down left and right, tickets are increasing, and enforcement is becoming ridiculous. Forget the environment–RIDING MOTORCYCLES is not sustainable if we continue down the current path of pissing everyone around us off!

They may not compete in the power, range, quick refuel department just yet, but that doesn’t mean that electric bikes don’t have anything to offer–even in their current state. I used to be a jagoff that ripped down the back roads at WOT on a regular basis. On my “old man bike” Multistrada I seldom break 100mph. So I compare this bike that I own to one of these Brammos:
Multistrada was over $15K when new as optioned (I’m the second owner), top level Empulse is less even without subsidies.
Multistrada requires frequent and very expensive maintenance, Empulse requires almost none.
Empulse is much lighter and probably quicker off the line.
Multistrada is faster, but that goes unused anyway.
Multistrada has longer range, but I would never need it if I had a gas pump at home.
Empulse would easily handle my commute, and I would NEVER have to stop for gas (yay!).
Multistrada can carry a rider and passenger and has luggage. Advantage Multistrada, although I’ve only taken my wife along for the ride a whopping three times.
Multistrada takes FOREVER to warm up, Empulse would be instant.
Multistrada sounds really good, but I’m sure my neighbors hate me at 4:45 in the morning when I leave for work.

So, really, is this Empulse not the PERFECT commuter bike? Why WON’T there be a market for this?

I’m more in the market for an electric dirt bike, though. The rate at which our riding areas are closing down is downright depressing. For instance, the mountain I live right at the base of that used to be a great place to ride. Now it’s MTB only. When the right electric dirt bike comes along and I can afford it, it’ll be in my garage and I’ll be sneaking up that hill on a nightly basis!